"Never Say Die: The Myth and Marketing of the New Old Age"

Tulsa, Oklahoma – On today's edition of ST, we speak with author Susan Jacoby about her latest book, which is a timely, well-informed, and sometimes unsettling critique of how contemporary American society regards aging. Anyone who's seen just a handful of recent TV commercials, for example, is surely aware of this "new kind of old age" --- it's the widespread notion that sees growing older as "a phenomenon that enables people in their sixties, seventies, eighties, nineties, and beyond to enjoy the kind of rich, full, healthy, adventurous, sexy, financially secure lives that their ancestors could never have imagined." Or, more plainly, it's the media-perpetuated mindset that tells us that "90 is the new 50." Jacoby's book is called "Never Say Die: The Myth and Marketing of the New Old Age." As a critic in The Washington Post has noted of this volume: "If old age isn't for sissies, then neither is Susan Jacoby's tough-minded, painful-to-read, and important book, which demolishes popular myths that we can 'cure' the 'disease' of aging and knocks the 'g' right out of the golden years. . . . [Jacoby supports] her arguments eloquently and persuasively with historical, sociological, scientific, and economic research."